Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer
Image
Beyond Flowers and Platitudes: Reclaiming the Essence of International Women’s Day
Image
Visionary or ‘Stuck-in-the-Mud’? Where are you on Workplace Flexibility?

Don’t fall for Shire’s ‘lowball’ bid, Baxalta CEO urges. Be true to our solo prospects instead

August 12, 2015
Life sciences
Last week, Baxalta rejected a $30 billion buyout bid from Shire, pointing to its youth, its standalone prospects and a portfolio that just wouldn’t jibe with the Irish pharma’s. On Monday, its CEO hammered those points home once again for investors–and stressed that Shire’s proposal, as it stands, is “wholly inadequate.”
 
Baxalta’s leaders made the “correct decision” not to engage with the Dublin drugmaker, skipper Ludwig Hantson insisted, noting that the $45.23-per-share offer “wasn’t close” to where it should be if Shire wants Baxalta to come to the table.
 
“In some respects, the nature of Shire’s interest in Baxalta is puzzling. Is it trying to opportunistically acquire our attractive hemophilia, immunology and growing oncology platforms without true synergies? We have an attractive set of franchises and it would be a shame to hand it over for a lowball valuation,” Hantson said on a call with shareholders.
 
Sure, Shire could bring along tax advantages for the Illinois drugmaker, thanks to its Irish address. But that’s where the savings would end, Baxalta believes. Though the two companies both focus on rare diseases, there’s little overlap, with Baxalta’s focus mainly on plasma. Combining plasma with other biopharma businesses won’t make easy cost cuts, Hantson contends.
 
“An acquirer like Shire isn’t just going to find easy savings from a combination with dissimilar assets,” he said.
 
When it comes to Baxalta’s standalone prospects, though, Hantson’s outlook is much rosier. The company is aiming to launch 20 new products by 2020, which should help it generate more than $2.5 billion in risk-adjusted sales. Its infrastructure and manufacturing “will provide an excellent platform to grow value,” too, he said.
 
Some analysts, though, have applauded Shire’s decision to go after Baxalta–and quickly. Cowen & Co. analyst Ken Cacciatore, for one, views the proposal–initially brought to Baxalta just 9 days after it spun off from parent company Baxter–as “value-creating and appropriately aggressive,” he wrote in a Monday note to clients.
 
By Carly Helfand
 

comments closed

Related News

April 20, 2024

CureVac and MD Anderson Cancer Center partner to develop new cancer vaccines

Life sciences

CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.

Read more
April 20, 2024

FUJIFILM plans $1.2 billion investment in major US manufacturing facility

Life sciences

FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.

Read more
April 20, 2024

Sanofi cuts staff in Belgium as early-stage research dwindles

Life sciences

Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach